Spitzer has built his political legacy on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general. He stormed into the governor’s office in 2006 with a historic share of the vote, vowing to continue his no-nonsense approach to fixing one of the nation’s worst governments.

During his two terms as attorney general, his cases included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes.
Lilyea adds:

Do I sound pleased? Yes, I am. Spitzer was one of the reasons I left New York State - I figured if my neighbors were stupid enough to elect him to the office of Attorney General for being a “pragmatic Liberal”, I didn’t want to live among them anymore.

Go to the post, and don't forget to bookmark This Ain't Hell on your browser and feed reader - it's a great blog, and one of my daily must-reads.

2008.03.09

This situation has come about because the Democratic party is no longer about principle but personality. Because 21st century liberalism is bereft of real ideas it has become vulnerable to the cult of personality. Ideology has now been demoted to rhetoric or talking points. Who really believes that either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton are determined to preserve the national security of the United States? But anyone can readily see they are devoted to preserving the interests of themselves. That's what counts. And as Morris and Chait will now see, it's all that counts. 'How could she?' Chait wonders. The Clintons always could. It's just that he was the last to know.

Remarks. As a pro-McCain Republican, I obviously see "good news" in anything that helps McCain. But I can't feel good about the nastiness that seems destined to overtake the Democratic side in this election. Of course it's not up to me; but the sad thing is, it's not really up to America's Democrats either; it's up to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the power brokers behind the scenes. That's the real shame, because the millions of good, honest, decent American voters who are also loyal Democrats deserve better.

The only silver lining is that maybe this will result in much-needed electoral reform - for both parties, and for the election process as a whole. It would be nice if "hope" and "change" were more than slogans.

2008.01.24

I’ve written numerous times about my opposition to term limits legislation applied to elected officials. The ballot box should be all the power we need to “t’row da bums out.” Having lived in two different European countries, Italy and England, and having served as the US representative to a European based international organization, I have witnessed the problems caused by civil servants accumulating too much power and influence. If we decide to place term limits on our elected officials we will simply invite the congressional staffers to take more and more authority and power than a government elected by the people, for the people should have. ...

2007.11.17

It is President Bush who has has been saying since 2002 that the longstanding Western policy of accommodating corrupt dictatorships in the Arab world has contributed to the rise of terrorism, and that the only long-term solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism is our effort to bring modernity, including democracy, to the Muslim world. This was the chief reason for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and those who share Bush's view of the matter are conventionally called, for no very good reason, "neocons."

2007.10.22

This past weekend TAPPED blogger Kate Sheppard reacted to something I've sensed from the very outset of Ms. Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign: ad feminam attacks against the former First Lady do nothing to engage the left nor (more importantly) the middle during the long, rhetorical slogfest underway between now and November 4, 2008. Here Sheppard is less than impressed with talkradio personality Mark Levin for having dubbed Ms. Rodham Clinton "Her Thighness."

As matters of principle and strategy, conservatives should not dismiss Sheppard's complaint. Principle, because the candidate needs to be confronted on her record; strategy, because "ideologically moderate white women" just might hold the key to the White House. Indulging a conservative chuckle now could easily lead to hearing the roar of many a woman voter later. For believe it or not, as this poll suggests Ms. Rodham Clinton could in the end (if only by default) end prove "a uniter, not a divider." Then again, if we grant that a woman deserves to be respected for her mind, we should also insist that a woman be disrespected for her mind, if she so deserves....

2007.08.31

Log Cabin has been providing a strong voice in the midst of the scandal involving Senator Larry Craig (R-ID). His behavior has been inappropriate and illegal. His explanation is not credible. He should take responsibility for his poor judgment and illegal behavior by resigning.

Senator Craig has a terrible record on gay rights issues, so obviously hypocrisy is part of this story. However, even if he had a good record on gay issues his behavior would still be illegal and inappropriate.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will announce Saturday he will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

2007.08.27

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.

A Hennepin County court docket showed Craig pleading guilty to the disorderly conduct charge Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.

... Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the airport.

I first read about this earlier this afternoon (Pacific Time) on Townhall’s blog. When I first saw the headline, I thought it was a reference to old unsubstantiated reports about the Senator seeking sexual liaisons in public restrooms.

Given those reports (which now apparently have more substance than I once believed), this man should have been understood that people were aware of his unsavory behavior. That he continued (despite the reports) suggests a terrible lapse in judgment.

The hypocritical Republican meltdown continues. This time it's the revelation that Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was arrested on a lewd conduct charge in an airport bathroom.

Craig is a 62-year-old married man and allegedly, despite efforts to keep the arrest report secret, indicated in code to another man (a policeman--dontcha just hate it when that happens?) in the next stall that he wanted to engage in "lewd conduct." Craig, a senator with a 100% favorable rating from the Christian Coalition, quietly plead guilty. ...

I don't have much sympathy of Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, the latest in the growing list of closeted politicians caught with their pants down, and here's why:

The activist, Mike Rogers, who runs the Web site BlogActive.com, has complained about Craig's opposition to gay rights. The conservative senator has supported an amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriage and voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in the 1990s. Craig, who served in the National Guard, has also spoken out against homosexuals serving in the military.

The self-hatred implicit in that is mind-boggling. Human sexuality could be called the world's epicenter of hypocrisy. And the intolerance of this gay man in the Senate toward other gay people is mean and almost sadistic. He should resign, not for his behavior in the bathroom, but for his creepy political phoniness.

MORE: Craig also opposed civil unions. That would make him a bigot against himself. ...

2006.10.11

Here's one comment which will remind you of my Authentic Feminist foundation--while we all complain that politicians are politicians, here's one thing we can be sure of--with all the page scandals, the intern scandals, and girls who worked for politicians turning up dead (think Kennedy/Kopechne and Condit/Levy), none of the politicians involved have been women. A woman lawmaker has never been accused of sexually harassing an intern, or of making passes at a page, nor has a woman in office been linked to an office worker's death.

So perhaps it's not Washington, DC, power or politics that is the common thread here--maybe it's the sort of man [TB's emphasis] attracted to that environment. There are women serving on both sides of the aisle, and no matter what you think of Hillary Clinton, as an example, we can be pretty darn sure she's not chasing an intern of either sex around her office. The same can be said about Elizabeth Dole, and Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, or Barbara Mikulski. Because it's not about homosexuals, but about men, gay and straight, young and old, and what they do with power.

Is it possible to have the same peace of mind with men in Congress as we do with the women in Congress, at least when it comes to their personal deportment? Is that too much to ask? I certainly don't think so.

Let's admit it--women handle power differently. And as pundits on the left and the right point fingers and complain about who is more corrupt--perhaps it's time to see this as an opportunity to decide to really do things differently, and vote for women, for a real change.

In my Comments, Jeremayakovka expressed reservations about Tammy's post, and I agreed:

I think Tammy makes some great points but I think the issues need to be addressed more clearly. She weakens her argument by conflating two or three points which I believe are distinct from one another: (1) the assertion that women tend to have a different style of leadership from men, quite possibly true in itself; (2) the fact that men tend to display *certain forms* of sexual aggression that are less prevalent (though not necessarily absent) among women; and (3) the lack of (and continuing discrimination against) women in leadership roles.

Also it's important to remember that just as men and women tend to have different styles of leadership, so too do women and men have different ways of engaging in conflict and aggression. Phyllis Chesler wrote an excellent book on female/female conflict.

So, let me elaborate a little here. Individually, I believe Tammy's points are all valid, but I think it would be misleading to suggest that one should vote for women with the expectation that women will be better leaders. Of course, that's not what Tammy is saying; she says, "women handle power differently" (my emphasis), not necessarily "better". But it's not too much of a stretch to read her post and think, "I should vote for women because they will be less likely to harass their pages and will therefore be better leaders". Which of course is wrong thinking.

One of the assumptions of old-school feminism has been that if women leaders were given a fair chance, they would prove less aggressive, less violent, less susceptible to "testosterone poisoning", and generally better leaders than men. Now for all I know, this may very well be true! Given the continuing paucity of women leaders on the international scene, it is far too early to make any kind of empirical assessment.

But we should not predicate our support for women leaders on these assumptions, because they may prove to be false. To put it another way, it would be unfair to put women on any kind of a pedestal based on pre-conceived expectations. And even if a putative future generation of women world leaders did prove to be less predatory and warlike in the patriarchal fashion, might they not make up for it with other vices? Again, as Phyllis Chesler has so ably demonstrated, women are quite capable of their own forms of cruelty.

Do vote for women because women leaders bring many things - character traits, abilities, and experiences - to the political world that men lack. Do vote for women because women have had the deck stacked against them by a sexist, patriarchal society for generations.

Don't ever vote for a woman just because she's a woman, or because you think women can do no wrong.